Paddling Bowman Lake Glacier National Park

Nessie at Bowman Lake, Glacier National Park

Bowman Lake is in the northwest section of Glacier National Park, and is about as
far away from things as you can get without hiking into the back country. The
only place more out of the way is Kintla Lake also in the northwest section of the
park. All of the guidebooks say that you really really want to go to Kintla lake before
you undertake the trip. And there isn't much need to go.

The better (or least bad) road to Bowman Lake is the Outside North Fork Road that follows the Flathead River
outside the park. The road is paved for a short section after you leave the park.
The pavement soon ends and is followed by about 4 miles of relatively good unpaved road.
Then there are about 4 miles of paved road, followed by another 4 miles of unpaved road
that gets you to Polebridge--the only bit of civilization in this part of the world.

On to Bowman Lake

Road from Polebridge to Park before you get to the park.

Road to Bowman Lake after entering Glacier National Park.

After you leave Polebridge, you have another mile of unpaved road until you
reach the northwest entrance to Glacier National Park. The park service has a sign
posted saying that roads in this (the northwest) section of the park the roads are
maintained in a primitive state. This means that every so often a bear is hired
to dig a new pothole in the road. The road is rough, dusty, rough, and narrow. After a
few miles of this rough road, you reach the campground, picnic area, and boat launch.

The trip into the lake proved to be well worth it. The mountains jump right out
of the lake. The water is clear. It's so clear, in fact, that my wife was warning me
about paddling over rocks that were several feet below us.

We saw a bald eagle and a otter while we were paddling. The otter kept playing
around just far enough away to keep us from getting a good picture of him. The eagle
was great. What a great way to spend a day.

As the day wore in, the wind started to pick up so we turned around and returned to
the launch area. Sudden afternoon winds can cause significant problems on the
mountains lakes in Glacier. It's not a good idea to be on the water when the
wind starts to blow.

On the drive out we enjoyed to fall colors and stopped several times to
admire the view.